Blueprints and Baggage
by TheFreshApple
Summary: Sarah never was busy. She could always talk. When that freedom drove away the man she loved, she realized she had to change something. After movie fluff. Oneshot.


Sarah was lost.

Quite literally lost.

She scanned over every inch of her desk and nowhere could she see where the incessant ringing of her cellular phone was coming from. She flipped pages and pages of memos over her shoulder onto the floor, simply to locate the source of the tinny, generic ring tone she had never bothered to change. It was most definitely Michael, calling to beg her to grab the Pope for an exorcism or Jon Bon Jovi for the same reason.

With a cry of despair, Sarah flopped into her chair, flinging a sweater-clad arm over her eyes. "Fuck," she moaned, trying very hard not to cry. In the days after Christmas and leading up to New Year's Eve, she had been kicking herself more and more. She didn't regret any of her time spent with Michael, but Karl had been right. Answering the phone didn't make him better. In fact, he had been having even more violent tendencies of late. Sarah had even admitted to not being his caretaker, so why was she so concerned with answering the damn phone all the time?

The ring tone started up again, but Sarah didn't even move. "I'm not answering, so scream all you want," she mumbled into her arm.

"Who are you talking to?" A soft voice cut through the irritatingly shrill tone and right to Sarah's heart. Slowly, she dragged her arm off her face to see Karl staring at her, puzzled, his glasses askew on his otherwise perfect face. She could feel the blush seeping all the way into her toes as she sat straight up in her chair, almost flying forward into her desk and, inevitably, to the floor. "M-myself," she choked, trying to remember if she had bothered with makeup this morning.

Karl's brown eyes were sad as he ran them over her haggard face. "You look exhausted," he remarked, gently setting his blueprints on her desk. Sarah watched his hands, too embarrassed to meet his gaze, and felt heat sweep through her as she remembered how those hands felt on her skin. It had been her fault, that he had been driven away. She had wanted to talk to him afterwards, but so many things happened that she didn't know what it was she wanted to tell him. All she knew was this perfect specimen of human existence was even more shy around her because she was unable to separate her hectic family life from her work one.

"Sarah?" With a jolt, Sarah realized Karl was speaking, and she forced her eyes to meet his. "I said, do you want to go out for a drink? It is New Year's Eve, after all." The sadness was replaced with something like hope and for a second, Sarah saw her future flash before her. Beautiful, dark skinned children with black hair and gorgeous brown eyes were racing through the front yard, chasing a dog, while the two of them sat on the front porch, drinking tea and laughing. It was the same vision she always had when Karl was around, but this time she could actually see it coming to life.

Then the cell kicked in for the millionth time, and the two of them broke gazes, jumping simultaneously. Karl cleared his through uncomfortably, brow furrowing into understandable frustration. "You probably have to get that, so maybe another time…" He trailed off and picked up the blueprints, hitching the strap of his bag higher up on his shoulder. "Happy New Year, Sarah."

"Happy New Year, Karl." Sarah watched him disappear, both from the office and her vision. Unhappiness flooded her like a dam had broken somewhere around her heart. The tinny tones of the cell still echoed in her ears and she let her head drop to her desk with a satisfying thud. It had been years since a man had made her as happy as Karl did, and they hadn't even gotten to the best part then. She refused to let him walk out of her life again. She deserved to be happy. Leaving the phone wherever the hell it was, Sarah grabbed her purse and her coat, turned off her computer and desk lamp, and raced out the doors of the office.

Karl was standing on the sidewalk, not flagging down a cab, just staring straight ahead. He was thinking about how pretty Sarah looked with her hair down and how it was such a pity that he wasn't strong enough to stick around with her when her brother was being particularly difficult. He didn't notice when the office doors clicked open behind him, or when another person came to stand next to him, but he did notice when soft hands cupped his face and warm, wet lips pressed to his, telling him all he needed to know. Blueprints and bags dropped to the ground as Sarah reached up around his neck, winding her fingers in his hair, pressing him as close as he could get without devouring him through osmosis.

They kissed for several minutes, ignoring the honking horns and catcalls that sounded whenever a car passed. Finally, the kiss broke, but they stayed wrapped in each other's arms, watching the other's face for some kind of acceptance.

Karl exhaled shakily, his smile growing with every passing second. "You aren't busy, then?"

Sarah thought back to their first night together, how so much potential had been lost with words so similar. "I am," she said. "I'm busy with you."

He kissed her again and the last thought that went through her mind, before going blissfully blank, was, _"Well, Harry, here's a happy ending for you."_

SPONTANEOUSWRITINGS

**A/N:** I love this movie more than life itself, and it always bugged me that we never figured out what happened between Sarah and Karl, so I did what all fanfiction writers like to do and made up an ending myself.

Hope you like. Please review.


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